By extending the reach of traditional computing systems to encompass the
devices and physical space surrounding the machines, entities, both physical
and virtual, may be allowed to seamlessly interact. Physical spaces become
interactive systems, or in other terms, Active Spaces. Such environments are
analogous to traditional computing systems; just as a computer is viewed as
one object, composed of input/output devices, resources and peripherals, so
is an Active Space. However, the heterogeneity, mobility and sheer number of
devices makes the system vastly more complex. Applications may have the
choice of a number of input devices such as location sensing system, mouse,
pen, or finger and output devices, such as an everywhere display, monitor,
PDA screen, wall-mounted display, speakers, or phone.

Gaia brings the
functionality of an operating system to physical spaces. Common operating
system functions are supported, such as events, signals, file system,
security, processes, process groups, etc. Gaia extends typical operating
system concepts to include context, location awareness, mobile computing
devices and actuators like door locks and light switches. We are
investigating how to build applications in a generic way that make no
assumptions about the current hardware setup of a space - applications can
be built and then deployed in spaces with different configurations, using
the available resources.

Gaia Architecture:

Click on any
part of the diagram below to find more information regarding the Gaia
kernel services, application framework, QoS services, and applications.

Our goal is to design
and implement a middleware operating system that manages the resources contained
in an Active Space.An
operating system for such a space must be able to locate the most appropriate
device, detect when new devices are spontaneously added to the system, and adapt
content when data formats are not compatible with output devices.Traditional operating systems manage the tasks common to all
applications; the same management is necessary for physical spaces.

In the 1970s James Lovelock formulated and popularized the idea of the Earth
- the collective atmosphere, oceans, lithosphere, and biosphere - as a
single, cybernetically self-functioning super-organism. This global entity
he called "Gaia", after the old Greek Earth-Goddess.
The Gaia project at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign seeks to
bring the same concept to computing. By creating an environment to bridge
the gap between virtual and physical objects, we envision bringing physical
spaces to life.

The Gaia group is co-organizing the
UbiSys '04 Workshop at UbiComp '04

The Gaia group is co-organizing the
PerWare '05 Workshop at PerCome '05

This
material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation
under Grant No. 0086094. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or
recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and
do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.